Stay Social: 4 Ways to Fight Loneliness in Retirement
Reports and articles are always coming out on fighting loneliness in retirement. This one on Katie Curic’s site is about as useless as the rest of them.
My strategy was to have a lot of friends, family and acquaintances prior to retiring. And to not like being around people too much. That way, the supply-and-demand graph remains favorable.
People who live alone, should get a free dog upon retirement. Even if he isn’t my spirit animal, having Sparky has been beneficial. All dogs may not be as stoic, cynical, critical, appreciative and witty as Sparky, but most dogs bring something to the party.
One strategy I stumbled upon to have a social retirement, is to join a friend’s group of friends. If, upon retirement, you have not friends, I’ve got no idea how you bootstrap the process.
When I started teaching at North Royalton, three people in the hiring process, said, “You are really going to like this guy, Boch, in your department.” I got the message. I was being hired to be Boch’s friend.
We did become good friends. His blog is posted on the sidebar of mine.
Boch invited me to join is gaming group. I played D & D a couple of times in college, but was too busy to stick with it. His gaming group consists of people that Boch has known for decades. Like any group of old friends, they have an origin story and share some general characteristics. Their core experience was working in haunted houses during their college years.
Having worked in haunted houses, most of them have skills in macabre decorations. Hence, the glowing goat at the top.
Over the Labor Day weekend, Ed had a cook-out at his house. He is fond of decorating his back yard to amuse his grandchildren. With Halloween coming, he is leaning into the weird, glowing stuff. That goat is peaking out of a playhouse, painted in fluorescent paint and lit with UV light. It looks like that.
This is Kenny and me.
Ed, like Boch and me, has way too much stuff in his house. Being capable and handy guys, we have a bunch of tools and supplies we use, more that we might use, and a whole bunch of stuff that someone might want. Everyone’s first retirement project is to clear the decks.
This is Kenny and me giving money to a stripper. Get it? Wire stripper, well, it isn’t that funny, but you work with what you’ve got.
